Netflix execs have long talked up the popularity of "Orange is the New Black," which centers around life in a women's prison. In 2013, just after Netflix released the first season, the company said it would "end the year as our most watched original series ever." More recently, Netflix told shareholders in June the third season of "Orange" helped drive record streaming in a single day: the Sunday after latest season was released.

As Re/code's Peter Kafka wrote this week, the survey is far from perfect — it's self-reported and doesn't provide the completion rate for the shows — but Netflix doesn't share any viewership figures so surveys like these are what analysts and investors look to for data.